Food, Glorious Food

This post is about food, or about things which will one day become food. 

Our baby plants are growing!  The radishes and lettuces came up right away - the carrots started growing about a week later.  I'm so excited!

Radishes at the bottom of the photo, then tiny carrot seedlings
(you might have to squint to see them), then baby lettuces.
This photo is actually a week old.

In an effort to extend our growing time into November to actually give our plants a chance to finish growing, we are building a cloche (like a mini-greenhouse).  Nick spent some time researching and planning how to do it effectively and cheaply, and so far it is coming along nicely.  We hope to finish that tomorrow and I'll put up photos.

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We got a little excited about the meat offerings at the Farmer's Market today.  Nick is trying to plan ahead each month by stocking the freezer with meats and then using them gradually, rather than having to buy it at the supermarket constantly.  We were delighted to see all sorts of lamb and pork offerings today (no beef, though).  So now we're stocked!

You know you want some.

Lamb kabob/stew meat, ground lamb, sage and maple pork sausages, and ham hocks (I want to experiment with bean soups).   At a reasonable price, as well.  The farm is having open-to-the-public celebration weekends next month and I think we'll go.  I'm curious to see how the operation is run.

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At the market today, we also purchased a lovely-looking butternut squash and some green tomatoes.  The lady who sold us the tomatoes suggested that we use them to make fried green tomatoes.  I had never tried cooking them before but it turns out that they are both easy and delicious!

Dinner tonight was a vegetarian feast: butternut squash soup with ginger, fried green tomatoes, and sauteed Swiss chard (I bought that last week and forgot to use it).  Plus, when I realized there would be soup I plugged in the breadmaker and put together a loaf of three-seed whole wheat bread.  Dinner was mildly labor-intensive but delicious!

This house blog is spilling over into the realm of food and such, but from my perspective it's not really much of a stretch.  For us, a big part of owning our own home and living in a small-ish town is the chance to become part of a community, which entails things like going to the Farmer's Market.  And we have access to such beautiful and delicious local foods that it has become a not-insignificant part of our lives.  So there you go.  Besides, we ran into our neighbor from across the street at the market because she is a Master Gardner and was volunteering as part of the Virginia Cooperative Extension.  We're just getting started and there is an expert across the street?  Lucky us!